Gaurav Sharma
Very few of us know about Repechage Round. But all of us know about the three Olympic medals which India clinched in 2008, 2012 and 2016, thanks to Repechage Round, which indirectly helped the Indian wrestlers to script history. The three of India's five Olympic medals won from the Repechage Round.
India's veteran wrestlers Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and women wrestler Sakshi Malik all Olympic medalists were eliminated before the semifinal and got the second opportunity because the winning wrestler went on to reach the final.
Although, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav aka Pocket Dynamo, won a Bronze medal in 1952 Olympics is not in the list.
What is the Repechage Round?
The meaning of Repechage is fishing out or rescuing. It is a type of wild card system which allows participants, who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round.
Types of Repechage Rounds
There are five kinds of Repechage rounds.
1. Full repechage
2. Quarter-final repechage
3. Double-elimination repechage
4. Repechage bracket with two-third place finishers
5. Consolation bracket
Wrestlers, who won Olympic medals for India.
1. Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav
He was the first wrestler to win an individual Olympic medal. Jadhav settled for a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
2. Sushil Kumar (Won in Repechage Round).
In 2008, Sushil went down against Andriy Stadnik in the opening round of the 66 kg freestyle but went on in the Repechage round. He defeated Doug Schwab in the first repechage round and Albert Batyrov in the second round and clinch the historic bronze, defeating Leonid Spiridonov.
The veteran grappler, however, Up the Ante and went on to clinch the Silver medal in 2012.
3. Yogeshwar Dutt (Won in Repechage Round)
Yogeshwar Dutt claimed a memorable bronze in the Men's freestyle 60 kg to became the third Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal. In the bronze medal match, Yogeshwar defeated North Korea's Ri Jong-Myong.
4. Sakshi Malik (Won in Repechage Round)
Sakshi is the first women wrestler of India to win an Olympic medal. In the Rio Olympics 2016, The Haryana-born grappler won the bronze medal in the 58 kg category. She lost to eventual finalist Valeria Koblova of Russia in the quarters to qualify for the repechage round.
Good read. Felt good that you have mentioned about KD Jadhav